Disclosure first. I believe in the Europe Union and the European vision. I believe that as a nation we are more than this small island and that not only means we should engage with European politics, but we have a responsibility to do so. So yes, I voted Remain.
Obviously I think the referendum result was a terrible decision and I'm appalled at the lack of conviction shown by the winners in the aftermath - be it Boris deciding that after leading Leave, he doesn't want to lead actually leaving or the calls from the Leave camp to put off invoking Article 50 for an unspecified amount of time. The indecision and lack of any coherent plan for this result is, frankly, terrifying.
Remain supporters are trying to process the situation. Some are calling for a second referendum, while others are looking to Scotland to find a magic veto and dig us out of this mess. Still others are looking to claim citizenship of other countries, or leave altogether. There is a hope the government will simply ignore the result, which seems a reasonable reaction, if wishful. It's not like they've listened when it comes to anything else recently.
Many have had enough of all this. They've sat through months of campaigning, of impenetrable rhetoric, half-truths, scaremongering and downright lies and, understandably, just want to get back to normal life. They want cats and babies on their Facebook feeds, not endless discussion of what is seen as a now-closed issue. This resignation hasn't gone down well and others are asserting their right to be angry, leading to a weird meta-argument.
Personally, I'm sympathetic to the weariness. I'm tired of all the debates and all the fighting being about stopping things getting worse. The Remain campaign wasn't about fighting for a better future - it was a rearguard action to defend what was the current (far from ideal) state of affairs from the self-serving and deluded. The same as the battle to stop the NHS being taken to pieces and privatised. And the battle for the BBC. And the schools. And the Snooper's Charter. And so on.
The left does not seem to be fighting for improvements any more. We aren't campaigning for positive change, but opposing negative change which rather plays to the whining liberal stereotype and it is really hard to get gain any kind of momentum when your message is "now, hang on". It is at this point we really need something big and positive we can get behind in the political arena. We should be able to look to the opposition for some kind of balance. Except the opposition has struggled to be credible for the last few years and has just imploded.
This is, of course, an emotional reaction to the current situation. There is a tremendous amount of work done by those who are campaigning for a genuinely better future, and I am doing a disservice to those fighting the rearguard action. But ultimately, major change will need to come through voting in what I am going to crudely call "better people" and that means increasing engagement in a process which for me (someone who is already engaged and interested) is currently a source of helplessness and fatigue. I doubt I am alone in feeling this.
I hope future-me reading back can say that I've played a part in improving this situation.
